Virtu

It's cold and windy, as I wait patiently for the next bus, after having just missed the previous one. The twenty-minute wait time is likely due to transportation budget cuts and fewer ridership for this particular route.  I glimpse at the hint of blue sky beyond the hill's horizon.  My carriage finally arrives full of high schoolers.  I'm grateful the ride should take around thirty minutes.   Unfortunately, after walking for a while, I realize that I'm lost in the park.  I continue to walk aimlessly among fellow late afternoon pedestrians, most of whom stroll leisurely in contrast to my frantic pace.  I contemplate returning home.  But, somehow my weary limbs propel me forward, along paths that converge into a pedestrian only main street, one of the positive remnants after covid.  Nearing the familiar site of the Conservatory of Flowers, I find better direction from a kind young woman's phone. In the midst of what now feels like endless pavement, ...

I rarely watch contemporary movies.  I find it difficult to devote hours of my life to sitting still, without having to get up and do something.  So, when the Criterion channel offered a week of free streaming, I was interested in their lineup of iconic films. I don't stream movies on my laptop.  I consider myself to be a sentimental film purist, who still believes that movies should be experienced in a movie theater.  But I haven't seen a movie in a theater in years, despite being within walking distance to one.  Yet, here I am, staring into my laptop, to watch the movie, Breathless , by French New Wave auteur, Jean-Luc Godard.  I was introduced to his work in a college survey cinema course (a prerequisite for a film studies minor) through his film, Masculine-Feminine .  Stuck in the full auditorium for three hours, I became hypnotized by the young French actors, exploring pop culture themes in a romantic metropolis.  At the time, I didn't g...

Standing before the grocery store's egg section, I recall when a dozen cost around $6.  I express my current sticker shock at $11 to a younger woman, who appears to be disinterested in my attempt for mutual dissatisfaction.  It's been a while since I bought eggs apparently, and as usual I'm late to the reality. When I visit my mom with my siblings, she persistently offers her carton of eggs, claiming that she doesn't eat them often.  However, I reject her maternal gesture, since our brother-in-law went through the effort of getting them for her.  In addition, my personal guilt remembers that she can't walk to the store because of her aging hip.   We take mom to the store, and the eggs are $13.  We then realize that the last dozen priced at $5 was snatched by our sister, who lives conveniently across from her own neighborhood grocery. Gazing at the scarce display of egg cartons, I explain to my brother how for some reason, half a dozen is on sale for $3...